H&M has increased its return fee to 1 euro

H&M has announced it will increase its return fee to 1 euro per returned product, and H&M club members will no longer be exempt. 

H&M is one of the fashion companies to add return fees to reduce the number of returns and associated costs in Europe, where free return policies have become an issue - even at the environmental level - with thousands of returned fashion items per month. 

In fact, during 2022 in the UK, e-commerce returns cost reached the mark of £7bn and heavily impacted companies’ carbon footprints. In one single hour, during 2022 Christmas day, 709 products were returned online via ZigZag; showing an increase of 24%

H&M return policy won’t be the same in each country

Return fee policies vary between countries where H&M operates online. Belgian online shoppers already pay a fee of 1.95 euros (four cents less than in the Netherlands), except for Plus members. 

In France, H&M charges a fee of 0.95 euros, but members do not have to pay for returns. The same applies to the United Kingdom market, where non-members must pay 1.95 British pounds. For German shoppers, returning items is still completely free, whether they are members or not.

Return fee policies are growing 

Recently, in the Netherlands, Wehkamp announced a return fee cost of 0.5 euros, a decision taken to tackle the growing concern about how returns affect the carbon footprint and general logistics costs. 

The online department store revealed at a conference that approximately five thousand fewer products are returned daily, which accounts for 10% of their total sales.